1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the safe automatic flight control of aircraft capable of very high altitude operation and more particularly concerns improvements in aircraft flight control systems assuring safe recovery of aircraft altitude and flight path in the case of explosive decompression of the air within the cabin structure which might render the flight crew unconscious before emergency manual descent procedures can be initiated.
2. Description of the Prior Art
While aircraft have been successfully flown to safe altitudes and even to successful landings after serious or sudden loss of cabin air pressure at high altitudes by alert human pilots, their successes have normally been attributed in no large measure to tenuous fortune rather than to inherently appropriate design of the craft or of its control systems. Even a pilot with improbably high immunity to such an emergency situation would have considerable difficulty in safely solving the recovery problem. The latter requires pitching the aircraft over so as immediately to capture the maximum design air speed tolerable by the craft without dangerous or sustained over-shoot so as to avoid endangering the structural integrity of the aircraft. At the same time, it is desirable for the pilot to turn the aircraft off course and out of the airway so that descent of the craft will not interfere with other craft using the airway in the normal manner. Numerous other problems also evidently face the pilot in such an emergency.